ABSTRACT
The start of the twenty-first century in Russia has been marked by a spread of radio programmes instructing listeners on how to speak Russian correctly. A vast number of radio stations – Russkoe Radio (Russian Radio), Radio Mayak (Lighthouse), Radio Rossii (Radio of Russia), Narodnoe Radio (the People’s Radio), Kanal Kul’tura (Culture Radio) and Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) – are competing to offer advice to the audience on polishing up their Russian. Far from limiting themselves to the odd comment about an obscure word, these radio programmes see their task on a grand scale. For example, no less than a civilising mission was implied when at the round table discussion of the language of the mass media, one such programme – Gramotei (The Scholar) – was praised for teaching listeners to speak the ‘human’ language (Krongauz et al. 2005). With similar missionary overtones, the Radio Mayak website promises that the presenter of Gramotei Elena Shmeleva will help the audience not only speak and write, but also think in correct Russian.1
